CHAPT ER 2 5

Open Shortest Path First

Background
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol developed for Internet Protocol (IP) networks
by the interior gateway protocol (IGP) working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
The working group was formed in 1988 to design an IGP based on the shortest path first (SPF)
algorithm for use in the Internet, a large, international network connecting research institutions,
government agencies, universities, and private businesses. Like the Interior Gateway Routing
Protocol (IGRP), OSPF was created because the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) was, in the
mid-1980s, increasingly unable to serve large, heterogeneous internetworks. (For more information
about IGRP and RIP, see Chapter 24, “Interior Gateway Routing Protocol and Enhanced IGRP,” and
Chapter 23, “Routing Information Protocol,” respectively.)
OSPF was derived from several research efforts, including the following:
• Bolt, Beranek, and Newman’s (BBN’s) SPF algorithm developed in 1978 for the ARPANET (a
landmark packet-switching network developed in the early 1970s by BBN)
• Dr. Perlman’s research on fault-tolerant broadcasting of routing information (1988)
• BBN’s work on area routing (1986)
• An early version of OSI’s Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) routing protocol
For more information about IS-IS, see Chapter 28, “OSI Routing.”
As indicated by its acronym, OSPF has two primary characteristics. The first is that it is open, in that
its specification is in the public domain. The OSPF specification is published as Request For
Comments (RFC) 1247. The second principal characteristic is that it is based on the SPF algorithm,
which is sometimes referred to as the Dijkstra algorithm, named for the person credited with its
creation.

Technology Basics
OSPF is a link state routing protocol. As such, it calls for the sending of link state advertisements
(LSAs) to all other routers within the same hierarchical area. Information on attached interfaces,
metrics used, and other variables is included in OSPF LSAs. As OSPF routers accumulate link state
information, they use the SPF algorithm to calculate the shortest path to each node.
As a link state routing protocol, OSPF contrasts with RIP and IGRP, which are distance vector
routing protocols. Routers running the distance vector algorithm send all or a portion of their routing
tables in routing update messages, but only to their neighbors.

Open Shortest Path First 25-1

Routing Hierarchy

Routing Hierarchy
Unlike RIP, OSPF can operate within a hierarchy. The largest entity within the hierarchy is the
autonomous system (AS). An AS is a collection of networks under a common administration,
sharing a common routing strategy. OSPF is an intra-AS (interior gateway) routing protocol,
although it is capable of receiving routes from and sending routes to other ASs.
An AS can be divided into a number of areas. An area is a group of contiguous networks and
attached hosts. Routers with multiple interfaces can participate in multiple areas. These routers,
which are called area border routers, maintain separate topological databases for each area.
A topological database is essentially an overall picture of networks in relationship to routers. The
topological database contains the collection of LSAs received from all routers in the same area.
Because routers within the same area share the same information, they have identical topological
databases.
The term domain is sometimes used to describe a portion of the network in which all routers have
identical topological databases. Domain is frequently used interchangeably with AS.
An area’s topology is invisible to entities outside the area. By keeping area topologies separate,
OSPF passes less routing traffic than it would if the AS were not partitioned.
Area partitioning creates two different types of OSPF routing, depending on whether the source and
destination are in the same or different areas. Intra-area routing occurs when the source and
destination are in the same area; interarea routing occurs when they are in different areas.
An OSPF backbone is responsible for distributing routing information between areas. It consists of
all area border routers, networks not wholly contained in any area, and their attached routers.
Figure 25-1 shows an example of an internetwork with several areas.

25-2 Internetworking Technology Overview

 Routing Hierarchy

Figure 25-1 Hierarchical OSPF Internetwork

Router 8

H2
Router 7

Router 1 Router 2

Router 9

Area 2

Router 3
Router 6 Router 10

Area 1

Router 4 Router 11

Router 5 Router 12

H1

Router 13
Autonomous system (AS) Area 3

S1365a
In this figure, Routers 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 make up the backbone. If host H1 in area 3 wishes to
send a packet to host H2 in area 2, the packet is sent to Router 13, which forwards the packet to
Router 12, which sends the packet to Router 11. Router 11 forwards the packet along the backbone
to area border router Router 10, which sends the packet through two intra-area routers (Router 9 and
Router 7) to be forwarded to host H2.
The backbone itself is an OSPF area, so all backbone routers use the same procedures and algorithms
to maintain routing information within the backbone that any area router would. The backbone
topology is invisible to all intra-area routers, as are individual area topologies to the backbone.
Areas can be defined in such a way that the backbone is not contiguous. In this case, backbone
connectivity must be restored through virtual links. Virtual links are configured between any
backbone routers that share a link to a nonbackbone area, and function as if they were direct links.
AS border routers running OSPF learn about exterior routes through exterior gateway protocols
(EGPs) such as Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) or Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), or through
configuration information. For more information about these protocols, see Chapter 26, “Exterior
Gateway Protocol” and Chapter 27, “Border Gateway Protocol,” respectively.

Open Shortest Path First 25-3

SPF Algorithm

SPF Algorithm
The SPF routing algorithm is the basis for OSPF operations. When an SPF router is powered up, it
initializes its routing protocol data structures and then waits for indications from lower-layer
protocols that its interfaces are functional.
Once a router is assured that its interfaces are functioning, it uses the OSPF Hello protocol to acquire
neighbors. Neighbors are routers with interfaces to a common network. The router sends hello
packets to its neighbors and receives their hello packets. In addition to helping acquire neighbors,
hello packets also act as keepalives to let routers know that other routers are still functional.
On multiaccess networks (networks supporting more than two routers), the Hello protocol elects a
designated router and a backup designated router. The designated router is responsible, among other
things, for generating LSAs for the entire multiaccess network. Designated routers allow a reduction
in network traffic and in the size of the topological database.
When the link state databases of two neighboring routers are synchronized, the routers are said to be
adjacent. On multiaccess networks, the designated router determines which routers should become
adjacent. Topological databases are synchronized between pairs of adjacent routers. Adjacencies
control the distribution of routing protocol packets. These packets are sent and received only on
adjacencies.
Each router periodically sends an LSA. LSAs are also sent when a router’s state changes. LSAs
include information on a router’s adjacencies. By comparing established adjacencies to link states,
failed routers can be quickly detected and the network’s topology altered appropriately. From the
topological database generated from LSAs, each router calculates a shortest-path tree, with itself as
root. The shortest-path tree, in turn, yields a routing table.

Packet Format
All OSPF packets begin with a 24-byte header, as shown in Figure 25-2.

Figure 25-2 OSPF Header Format

Field length,
in bytes 1 1 2 4 4 2 2 8 Variable

Authent-
Version Type Packet Router ID Area ID Check- ication Authentication Data
number length
S1366a
sum type

The fields of the OSPF header are as follows:

• Version number—Identifies the particular OSPF implementation being used.
• Type—Specifies one of five OSPF packet types:
— Hello—Sent at regular intervals to establish and maintain neighbor relationships.
— Database description—Describes the contents of the topological database, and are
exchanged when an adjacency is being initialized.
— Link state request—Requests pieces of a neighbor’s topological database. They are
exchanged after a router has discovered (through examination of database description
packets) that parts of its topological database are out of date.

25-4 Internetworking Technology Overview

 Additional OSPF Features

— Link state update—Responses to link state request packets. They are also used for the regular
dispersal of LSAs. Several LSAs may be included within a single packet.
— Link state acknowledgment—Acknowledges link state update packets. Link state update
packets must be explicitly acknowledged to ensure that link state flooding throughout an area
is a reliable process.
Each LSA in a link state update packet contains a type field. There are four LSA types:
— Router links advertisements (RLAs)—Describe the collected states of the router’s links to a
specific area. A router sends an RLA for each area to which it belongs. RLAs are flooded
throughout the entire area, and no further.
— Network links advertisements (NLAs)—Sent by the designated routers. They describe all the
routers that are attached to a multiaccess network, and are flooded throughout the area
containing the multiaccess network.
— Summary links advertisements (SLAs)—Summarize routes to destinations outside an area,
but within the AS. They are generated by area border routers, and are flooded throughout the
area. Only intra-area routes are advertised into the backbone. Both intra-area and interarea
routes are advertised into the other areas.
— AS external links advertisements—Describe a route to a destination that is external to the AS.
AS external links advertisements are originated by AS boundary routers. This type of
advertisement is the only type that is forwarded everywhere in the AS; all others are
forwarded only within specific areas.
• Packet length—Specifies in bytes the packet’s length, including the OSPF header.
• Router ID—Identifies the packet’s source.
• Area ID—Identifies the area to which the packet belongs. All OSPF packets are associated with
a single area.
• Checksum —Checks the entire packet contents for potential damage suffered in transit.
• Authentication type—Contains an authentication type. “Simple password” is an example of an
authentication type. All OSPF protocol exchanges are authenticated. The authentication type is
configurable on a per-area basis.
• Authentication—Contains authentication information and is 64 bits in length.

Additional OSPF Features

Additional OSPF features include equal-cost, multipath routing, and routing based on upper-layer
type of service (TOS) requests. TOS-based routing supports those upper-layer protocols that can
specify particular types of service. For example, an application might specify that certain data is
urgent. If OSPF has high-priority links at its disposal, these can be used to transport the urgent
datagram.
OSPF supports one or more metrics. If only one metric is used, it is considered to be arbitrary, and
TOS is not supported. If more than one metric is used, TOS is optionally supported through the use
of a separate metric (and, therefore, a separate routing table) for each of the eight combinations
created by the three IP TOS bits (the delay, throughput, and reliability bits). For example, if the IP
TOS bits specify low delay, low throughput, and high reliability, OSPF calculates routes to all
destinations based on this TOS designation.
IP subnet masks are included with each advertised destination, enabling variable-length subnet
masks. With variable-length subnet masks, an IP network can be broken into many subnets of various
sizes. This provides network administrators with extra network configuration flexibility.

Open Shortest Path First 25-5

Additional OSPF Features

25-6 Internetworking Technology Overview